Members of the Atlanta Chamber Gamers (Helen Kim, violin; Elizabeth Pridgen, piano; Catherine Lynn, viola; and Brad Ritchie, cello) performing earlier this yr. (Picture by Chris Helton)
The Atlanta Chamber Gamers, the elder statesman of the town’s prodigious chamber music scene, will start its fiftieth season this fall. It’s a momentous present cycle that can see performances of classics from Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn alongside premieres of works by Che Buford and Andrea Casarrubios. However for the group’s members, it feels extra like a household milestone.
“I like enjoying with buddies,” says ACP violist Catherine Lynn. “Relationships are, on the finish of this life, all we’ve.”
“I’ve to echo Cathy,” provides violinist Helen Hwaya Kim. “As time goes on in life, I treasure these live shows much more. I treasure the rehearsals. I merely love the flexibility to share time with even strangers in a room. That’s the great thing about dwell music — you may follow all you need by your self, however then they grow to be a part of life and grow to be significant when you may share them with folks.”
That imaginative and prescient of constructing chamber music accessible to the folks at massive and extricating it from the lofty confines of conservatories and academia was on the coronary heart of founder Paula Peace’s imaginative and prescient.
Peace found her love of chamber music as an undergraduate piano main at Florida State College. Beginning a chamber music group of her personal grew to become her life’s dream, a want that solely intensified when she transferred to the State College of New York at Stony Brook and commenced enjoying in additional chamber ensembles. Submit commencement, Peace returned to her hometown of Atlanta to launch the Atlanta Chamber Gamers with two SUNY colleagues, flutist Melanie Cramer and clarinetist Robert Brown, in 1976.
The ACP shortly started increasing its instrumental horizons, including horns, percussion and different devices as wanted courtesy of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. “We have been a blended ensemble,” explains Peace. “We thought it might be extra enjoyable for us and extra enjoyable for the viewers if we weren’t only a string quartet.” The expansive repertoire included baroque trio sonatas in addition to works from the classical and romantic eras.
The group additionally confirmed an early urge for food for Twentieth-century classical works, one thing that will go on to grow to be a mainstay of the ACP’s ethos. “It was in our blood,” says Peace. “We at all times envisioned that the Atlanta Chamber Gamers would carry a whole lot of new listening experiences to Atlanta audiences.”
That preliminary lineup of the ACP gave its first efficiency in October of 1976 at Agnes Scott Faculty, the place they’d been introduced on because the ensemble in residence. The night included Mozart’s G minor piano quartet in addition to George Crumb’s “Voice of the Whale,” a piece for electrical flute, electrical cello and amplified piano meant to simulate the sound of whale songs.
“That’s typical, bona fide ACP,” says Peace of the choice to pair the time-honored works of Mozart with Crumb’s experimental modernism.
After I spoke to ACP lively members Lynn and Kim, they echoed that dedication to new music. I requested what they search for in new music and shared my long-standing sentiment that on this planet of classical music, “trendy” is usually secret code for “no melody.” They have been fast to concur and emphasised that accessibility is paramount for the ACP’s commissions.
“At all times somebody with an unique voice,” says Inventive Director Elizabeth Pridgen, concurring that it may be tough for audiences to confront the summary experimentation that permeates a lot of latest classical. “We would like it to be one thing that’s comparatively accessible. I don’t need to recommend that we would like it to be dumbed down, however one thing that has the chance to be performed once more and actually stick within the repertoire.”
Kim is fast to echo that sentiment. “I prefer to hear for music that makes one really feel one thing. Melody or not, if there’s intent — if a composer is basically expert at what they do — that ingredient ought to come by way of. Is there one thing this music brings that may be shared with an viewers?”
“Does it converse to the guts?” provides Lynn, mentioning that the ensemble does develop weary of uninspired works which have them sustaining lengthy sequences of entire notes or, as they put it, “holding footballs,” a reference to the form of entire notes on the workers.
The breadth and width of the ACP’s imaginative and prescient ultimately outgrew what Agnes Scott may accommodate, and the group partnered with Emory College, Kennesaw State College and Georgia State College for prolonged residencies. The group’s presence grew by leaps and bounds within the years following its inception, and shortly the ACP was enjoying all through the town.
That huge attain included colleges, prisons and public squares, all within the service of honoring Peace’s imaginative and prescient for a chamber ensemble that introduced the music to the folks. One of many distinctive cornerstones of that initiative grew to become the group’s “soiree” collection: live shows carried out in lovely houses. The relaxed setting proved in style for its intimacy and immediacy.
“Our numbers have been doubling annually,” recollects Peace. Nationwide and worldwide performances grew to become commonplace by the early Nineteen Eighties, and the ACP’s unofficial slogan grew to become “have chamber music, will journey.”
After 38 years as ACP creative director, Peace stepped down, and Pridgen took over in 2014. Having spent 4 a long time balancing efficiency with administrative duties, Peace was thrilled with the transfer. “I couldn’t be extra proud to have Liz be my successor with my life’s work. She’s good.”
“Paula was type of a one-woman present for a very very long time,” says Pridgen. She credit the ACP’s newly expanded board of administrators for a clean transition. “After I got here in, they’d a plan for how you can deal with succession. It was a golden alternative for issues to crumble.” To that finish, Pridgen adopted the position of creative director whereas enterprise pursuits have been dealt with by the group’s govt director, an workplace at the moment held by Melissa Klein.
The Atlanta Chamber Gamers has been a labor of affection for all concerned all through its 5 a long time. At instances, the love has been strained by the labor, however by no means to the breaking level. As Peace places it: “Life was sophisticated. However the music was at all times so gratifying.”